Flash Gordon Left Me The Keys

The TEST OF ALL MOTHERS

Wednesday, April 02, 2003

WATER FOR PEOPLE, WATER FOR LIFE
The IAEA and 22 other UN organizations have jointly contributed to a landmark publication that provides a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the current state of the world's freshwater resources. This publication has been released in connection with the celebration of the International Year of Freshwater and World Water Day 2003.

What happens where the waters meet...Special Operations Center, Pacific Command (SOCPAC) was established 1 November 1965. Headquartered in Okinawa, the unit provided unconventional warfare task force support for operations in Southeast Asia. These functions were eventually transferred to the USCINCPAC staff and subordinate commands, leading to the disestablishment of SOCPAC on 1 July 1969.
By the mid-70’s, it became clear that there was an increasing need for special operations planning and coordination in the Pacific, and a special operations staff within the USCINCPAC Operations Directorate was established on 15 May 1976.

In October 1983, the Joint Chiefs of Staff directed the establishment of Special Operations Commands in USPACOM and USEUCOM. Special Operations Command, Pacific (SOCPAC) was activated on 1 November 1983 with a total strength of 18 personnel.

On 28 December 1989, COMSOCPAC was assigned operational control of what is now the 353d Special Operations Group (Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan) and 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group (Torii Station, Okinawa, Japan). On 8 July 1991, COMSOCPAC was assigned operational control of Naval Special Warfare Task Unit-Pacific and a subordinate SEAL platoon, (Apra Harbor Naval Station, Guam).

SOCPAC and its component units deploy throughout the Pacific to participate in joint exercises in support of USCINCPAC and designated Joint Task Forces (JTF). SOCPAC also deploys unilaterally as JTF 510 and conducts numerous small unit exchanges with over 20 pacific nations in support of the USCINCPAC Theater Engagement Plan (TEP). COMSOCPAC hosts the annual Pacific Area Special Operations Conference (PASOC) in Hawaii. This year’s event included representation from 25 countries including 13 flag officers, 140 foreign delegates, and over 250 attendees. The command’s involvement in counterdrug operations includes Thailand, Laos, and the Philippines. In addition to humanitarian demining operations in Thailand and Laos, SOCPAC has also supported contingency missions in Indonesia, East Timor, Vietnam, and the Republic of the Philippines.

When NBC -- which is owned by General Electric, a prime military-industrial complex contractor -- decided to fire Peter Arnett for the thought crime of plain speaking, it was undoubtedly responding both to pressure from the White House (which accused Arnett of "pandering" to the Iraqis) and to the imperatives of its MSNBC ratings chase against the gung-ho, pro-war frothers of Fox News.

What provoked Arnett's defenestration? In an interview he accorded on Sunday to Iraqi television (which an MSNBC spokesperson initially described as a "professional courtesy"), Arnett allowed as how media reports of civilian casualties in Iraq "help" the "growing challenge to President Bush about the conduct of the war and also opposition to the war. The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another plan."
Of course, these are rather commonsense observations of the sort that can be read daily in the pages of our newspapers, and which even find their way onto U.S. television. Yet when NBC snatched the mic from Arnett's hands, on Monday morning CNN 's Jeff Greenfield rushed to endorse the veteran war correspondent's firing. Greenfield dismissed the notion of an anti-war movement whose challenge was "growing" -- as if the millions who have taken to the streets of major U.S. cities and the some 5,000 American civil disobedients who have so far been voluntarily arrested in "die-ins" and other nonviolent forms of political action -- part of the rising crescendo of protest on a scale not seen since the Vietnam war -- were not energized by the heart-rending accounts of civilians shredded by American bombs and bullets in an unnecessary and obtusely-run war.

Greenfield accused Arnett of pro-Iraqi "propaganda." Well, Jeff, one should never judge a book by its reader -- and Arnett's matter-of-fact account of the effects of reports on civilian casualties revealed nothing not already known to your average news consumer, both here and abroad.

WASHINGTON, DC--Following a 12th consecutive day of fighting, a puzzled President Bush confided to military advisors Monday that he "really figured the war would be over by now." It will only get better and finer with a possible acute gigestion as a child over eats too much candy.

Network News Satellites Collide Over Iraq
AN NASIRIYAH, IRAQ—In an accident air-and-space-traffic controllers called "inevitable," a CNN satellite collided with an MSNBC satellite over southern Iraq Monday. "Frankly, it's a miracle something like this didn't happen sooner," said Ian Graham of BBC One. "Right now, there are roughly 950 network news satellites crammed into a 125-cubic-mile area of space above Iraq, with more being launched every day." Less than an hour after the crash, an MTV News satellite grazed an Oxygen satellite, temporarily cutting off Oxygen News reporter Lisa Hood's live report on a firefight between U.S. and Iraqi forces near Basra.

"Frustrated with the United Nations' consistent, blatant regard for the will of its 188 member nations, the US announced Monday the formation of its own international governing body, the USUN." Some would merely laugh off this satirical story in America's Finest News Source, The Onion. But as the Arab League calls for an emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly to halt the illegal, unilateral war on Iraq we must ask, is it really just a laugh?

The US, UK and Spain refused to get the backing of the UN Security Council for a war on Iraq saying that France would clog up the system with its veto. But now that the Security Council will vote on a resolution calling for a ceasefire and to condemn the war on Iraq, it seems certain that the US and UK will use their veto to block the resolution.

Walking all over international treaties like sand in the dessert, the US is ignoring one of the founding principles of the United Nations. UN Charter Article 51 gives states a sovereign right to start military action in self-defense only if they have suffered an armed attack. There is no basis in international law for the use of force as a preventive measure when there has been no actual or imminent attack.

As a next step the Arab League can call for an emergency session of the UN General Assembly invoked under UN Resolution 377, known as Uniting for Peace.

Resolution 377 can be called either by a majority of the members of the UN Security Council, or by a majority of the General Assembly. It has been invoked 10 times in the last 50 years, when the Security Council, due to a 'lack of unanimity' among the permanent members, is unable to perform its primary task of maintaining international peace and security.

It's time that the US and UK governments are confronted by the breadth and depth of global opposition to this illegal war. If a resolution is tabled, an overwhelming majority of UN member states will support it, reflecting both a desire to respect international law as well as the overwhelming global public opposition to US unilateralism and to the loss of life in Iraq.

There are already reports that the US and the UK have been threatening countries with reprisals if they invoke 'Uniting for Peace'. But we must all take a stand together against a new world order dictated by the US, and use every legal instrument available within the UN system to stop the war.

Otherwise, we won't be laughing much longer when the US says "I can't tell you how much easier it is to achieve consensus when you don't have to worry about dissent."

I have to disagree with the current trend. Lets have the 600,000 tanks and armored vehicles out of Syria enter the war. For those the sport and tracking of war can become a hobby. When I first got my library card in 1966, The first books I checked out where about WWII and on television I would watch Rat Patrol, Combat and other similar shows. Television has not changed and the viewers have not changed either. Lets take a look at Iran's response to taking control or pipeline... Message from GreenPeace

United States warns that the simple act of support for a General Assembly meeting to discuss the war will be considered "unhelpful and directed against the United States." They further threaten that invoking the Uniting for Peace resolution will be "harmful to the UN."